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New Triumph ADV Video Explores the Question: Why Do You Ride?

 Ernie Vigil heads to the desert for answers to motorcycling's biggest question.

Published on 09.29.2016

You know the formula: a motorcycle manufacturer or gear line films riders ripping around at some scenic spot while highlighting the virtues of their product. It’s a tested marketing formula in the video age, and we like to watch because we’re adventure or dual sport riders dreaming of stepping away from the computer.

Triumph sometimes takes a different approach, and their videos stand out because of it. Their latest effort is a good example. “See the Triumph Adventure Range take on Utah” says nothing about the new Tiger Explorer and Tiger 800 models. Instead, it features gorgeous shots of the bikes being ridden hard in the Utah desert while telling one rider’s story about what motorcycles means to him. It doesn’t hurt that the rider is pro freestyle wizard Ernie Vigil, a man who can do superhuman things on a big bike.

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Vigil’s voiceover narrates close ups and aerial views of wide-open plains, canyons, mountains and washes. In it he answers the question, “Why do you do it?” For him, there really is no other option. “It was my escape at the time. It was my life. Anything to get on a bike. It consumed me.”

Power sliding in slow motion through two-track corners and raising huge dust clouds blazing down the straights, he continues his tale of what riding means to the truly obsessed. “I got to the point where I didn’t even want to go to work. I just wanted live on my bike every day. It didn’t matter if I had to sell everything off just to be on my bike.”

Who hasn’t felt that way at one time or another? Most of us end up back at our desks. Vigil came up with a way to make riding his work and his life. Motorcycles gave him the opportunity to travel and see the world. “There is no feeling like just getting on a bike and going,” he says. “I don’t think I’d trade it for anything, ever. That’s why I do it.”

Bob has been riding motorcycles since age 19 and working as a journalist since he was 24, which was a long time ago, let’s put it that way. He quit for the better part of a decade to raise a family, then rediscovered adventure, dual sport and enduro riding in the early 2000s. He lives in Arkansas, America’s best-kept secret when it comes to riding destinations, and travels far and wide in search of dirt roads and trails.